Toxins at Home and the Poison Purse

As part of national Poison Prevention Week, the library partnered with Kansas Department of Health and Environment and Safe Kids Kansas to create a Poison Purse display in the library’s Health Information Neighborhood, showing how medicines and candies look identical to a child in search of something sweet to eat.

In this article, the EPA urges adults to keep pesticides and disinfectants locked away from children to prevent accidental poisoning.

Young children constantly explore the world around them, touching and tasting everything they see. Their natural curiosity and tendency to put things in their mouths increases their risk of death from exposure to medicines and household products. Also, children are smaller, have faster metabolic rates and are less able to tolerate toxic chemicals, placing them at a significantly greater risk of poisoning than adults. Children are also poisoned by lead and carbon monoxide.

What to do if you suspect a child has swallowed something

If you suspect a child has swallowed something, check his or her mouth. Remove any remaining poison from the child’s mouth, then call the poison control center toll-free hotline, physician or other emergency medical services. When calling, bring the container of the ingested substance to the phone with you. Call even if you are not sure that the child was poisoned. The poison center staff or emergency personnel will determine if you need to do anything for the child. Do not give the child anything to treat the poison until you have consulted a poison control center or a health care professional. Vomiting can often aggravate the poisoning and cause even greater long-term damage.

Mid America Poison Control Hotline: 1-800-222-1222

The library has free telephone stickers in the the Health Information Neighborhood with the Poison Help telephone number.

Check out more books on Healthy Home and Environment in the Health Information Neighborhood at call number 615.902 or browse these titles:

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Lissa Staley helps people use the library. She is a Book Evangelist, Health Information Librarian, Arts & Crafts Librarian, Trivia Emcee, Classics Made Modern book group leader, and frequent library customer, especially with her children. She reads a new book every few days, but recently loved Adorkable by Sarra Manning, Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman and Tin Star by Cecil Castellucchi.